[Play] Rossom Act 2, Scene 3

 Scene - The dining table of Rossom is a showcase of human anatomy, a table with human style legs and arms and hands.  Goblets shaped like hands etc.  Depending on what the company can compile but the theme of humanity and the obsession with the human form should be apparent.

Rossum:

Welcome to my home

I have invited you to dinner

So we could discuss all of the advances 

All the things I have done to make the world 

A better place.

Alquin

Not the people that you put out of work

Rossum

I have created the world's only FUNCTIONING universal basic income fund

Alquin

I know.

Rossom

Every person replaced by a robot taps into that fund

Alquin

I know.

Rossom

Why do you come here if you sympathize with those luddites?

Alquin

Because I worked on the first generation.  Your new toys are different.  I dont have another useful skill.

Rossom

You have more money than most people.  Everyone that works for me doesn't have to work.

Alquin

Of course I have to work.  You have money.  You don't NEED more, yet you keep working.

Rossom

I am working to change the world.  I have a vision.

Alquin

I am working because I need to work.  It’s who I am.  It's what I do.

Rossom

(beat)

Fair enough.  But the work you do is genius, it's brilliant.  Most people aren't that way.

Alquin

Work is good for the soul.

Rossom

Let’s let Helena worry about the souls of our robot friends, shall we?

Alquin

I meant humanity.

Rossom

Humanity can do the work that thinkers do.

Alquin

Version 2.0 DOES that kind of work.

Rossom

Work that is forced is slavery

I am the Eternal Lincoln 

Emancipating Man to do only those works

That he so chooses.

I am the bringer of fire

The breaker of chains

The observer of the apple

And the bearer of the reins

Our time is the one thing we never get back

Even robots slowly age and die

So why should we do anything

But that which we choose to do?

Alquin

What doth all the time in the world

Profit a man

If he sells his soul to get it?

What then I ask you?

Wealth in time or wealth in coins

Only means something 

If you have something on which to spend

And most people value their lives

We have always worked

And we need work more than a hobby

Something larger than ourselves

Something to belong to